Singing for my supper

I admit it. I've followed For Better or For Worse for much of my adult life, the story of the Pattersons being part of my morning coffee-and-email routine (I admit to having switched to online viewing as soon as it became regularly available that way!). While I wish Ms Johnston all the best, I can't deny that I'm deeply saddened that the story will no longer continue to unfold as it has. Thanks for sharing the wonderfully funny, compassionate and real world you created; it will be sorely missed!

To school that is. Well, I'm not - I still have another week before my adjunct teaching begins - but 5th grade has begun and my husband is back to teaching this week, too. Unusually, the weather has even cooperated by continuing the autumnal feel with much cooler temperatures than one expects for the end of August. It's nice. And now, no more excuses. The next performance is coming up fast and, particularly as it's something a little outside my usual repertoire in that it's a music theater role (albeit a show regularly cast with operatic voices) and thus there's more dialogue, I have a lot of memorising to do. It's a plum role, too so, even though I'm anticipating a learning curve - particularly as rehearsal time will be short - I'm loving it. I've enjoyed this holiday so much, but there's something to be said for my "working" routine: the house is quiet for a few more hours so I can practice when and how I want without interferin...

Ok, so I'm not the first to blog about FB. But I've been thinking about it a lot recently and I realise, like many, I have a very love/hate relationship with it. The plus column includes at least two things: I like being able to keep passively in touch with people who I don't necessarily talk to a lot, but who I would consider friends and of whose lives I enjoy being a part (and I like to include them in my own); I also like the professional networking aspect it offers so I can casually let colleagues and mentors know what I'm up to without necessarily bombarding them with news. On the other hand, the entire concept annoys me. It often feels far too much like "real life" has been so completely consumed by the internet that it gets written down before it gets lived. And, if I'm honest, sometimes the entire community feels like a giant invasion of privacy, as seemingly "off the record" updates and "wall" conversations are streame...

(Taken during today's trip to the zoo. To my delight, this is what it looked like straight out of the camera - I can't take any particular credit for this one, but I'm enjoying the results... !)

Is it really nearly Labor Day?!!? I'm still trying to figure out where the year has gone! My head is still in Holiday Mode - we still have this week before our daughter is back to school, and my husband's and my own teaching schedules still have two weeks before they're under full sail, thus we're trying to make the most of these last free days particularly since the weather has cooperated and been atypically pleasant for late August in these parts. It's often brutally hot and muggy, but has this year been surprisingly low-humidity and "only" in the 80s, thus encouraging lazy BBQ evenings outside, capped off by watching the Olympics, continuing to marvel both at the miracles which the human body can perform, and also renewed acceptance that singing is far, far, FAR more like an athletic pursuit than an artistic one! I can't say I'm 100% nose-to-the-grindstone just now ::cough:: but , like the athletes, the Work Of A Singer Is Never Done (I don...

Ok, so I'm not going to write a lengthy post about the similarities between athletics and singing (although there are many!), if only because holiday mayhem continues and I'm out the door to go be a tourist with the family for a few hours. But this quote jumped off the page at me, and I think it's worth sharing: "gold is not the glory, the pursuit of gold is" In art as in sport. (Quote attributed to Dan Wetzel, Yahoo! sports journalist)

... and even if the livin' ain't "easy", it's certainly a slower pace than it has been for quite some time. Posting may also be slower this month as "vacation mentality" starts to take over! Recently occupying much of our time has been the fantastic (and fantastically under-broadcast) Canadian TV series Slings and Arrows . For anybody involved with the theater at any level, it should be required watching. And for any non-theatrically-connected readers who see it and think it's merely a clever and affectionate caricature of theatrical eccentricity, I am here to tell you that it is one of the most truthful depictions of the performing life I've ever seen and (give or take the occasional ghost...) far closer to documentary than drama! It's also quite, quite brilliant. A genuinely funny and engaging script, interesting characters, stunning performances and blazing insight about "the craft of the art" - and the problems that go wit...